Chapter 3
As Mary walked into the home that her elder sister, Charlotte, shared with her husband, her eyes widened in surprise. It did not matter how many times she came to visit, it would always come as a shock. The home they shared was incredible; huge, elegant, and filled with luxury. Right in the heart of London, it was almost a castle fit for royalty.
Lord Jones, Charlotte’s husband, and his family made their wealth from banking and finance. It was a lucrative company that meant her sister could afford anything in the world. It hardly mattered that he was two decades older than her sister. He was chosen for her because of the lifestyle he could offer her.
Just like this Duke was for Mary, she supposed ...
Mary could not help herself; she felt very jealous of what her sister had. This home, the exciting life of going to the sort of society events that her husband’s wealth opened up to her, the clothes and jewellery ... it was all like a dream come true. It made their family home look utterly tiny; it made Mary feel like she had nothing. She did want something so lovely herself; Mary was keen to inject a little more excitement into her life, but that did not mean she was ready for marriage and to be thrown into society just yet.
Still, no matter what she had, Charlotte never looked happy. Her plump, bee-stung lips were always turned down, and her round brown eyes were filled with utter sadness. Even her pale, milky skin looked drawn and distressed under all the make-up that she wore. Just looking at her made Mary’s heart ache.
“Please, Mary, take a seat,” she told her sister much too formally. Mary could remember a time when all they did was bicker over silly things. Now Charlotte was acting like she was a stranger. “Would you like some tea?”
Mary nodded to agree, but only to try and get rid of the butler that seemed to follow Charlotte everywhere. “Yes, please. Thank you very much.”
Once they were alone, Mary leaned forward and examined her sister carefully. The silk dress that flowed from her body appeared perfect, and her hair finely adorned, but she was definitely wearing a mask to try and hide her feelings. Mary needed to delve right in to find out more.
“Charlotte, are you alright? You do not appear to be quite well.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened with shock, but she quickly rearranged her expression until her face was blank once more. “I am utterly fine, Mary. I hope that you are well too.”
Mary bit down on her bottom lip as she considered carefully what she needed to say next. She wanted to confide in her sister, but it was a challenge to find the right words. “Actually, I am not. I had a meeting with Walter earlier in the week.”
“Father’s friend?” Charlotte screwed up her face in confusion. She could remember the man well. Being older than Mary was when their father died, everything stuck in her mind much more clearly. “Why did you have a meeting with him? I have not seen him since ...”
“Father’s funeral, I know.” Mary nodded slowly. “That was sort of what he wanted to talk to me about.”
“Why would he talk with you now? Father passed away five years ago. Why would he be speaking to you now?”
“There was a clause in Father’s will that affects me now.” Charlotte turned her whole body to face Mary. Her hands remained tightly clasped in her lap, but her fingers wrung around one another showing her anxiety. “Now that I am eighteen years of age, he wishes me to get married.” She breathed deeply, all of this suddenly feeling much too real. “I will not inherit the family home if I do not get married.”
“What?” Charlotte felt utterly horrified by that statement; she could hardly believe it. “Why would Father be so cruel? I can hardly believe it!” She could feel her body trembling. “Why would he not just allow you to have the house?”
“Walter believes that Father has my best interests at heart.” Mary’s heart sunk. “He thinks that Father just wants to persuade me into a wedding because it is what is best for me now that I am eighteen.”
Charlotte was filled with an utter sense of ice-cold dread. The mask that she kept on her face at all times slipped slightly. Despite the fact that she did not like anyone to know how she truly felt, her emotion almost peeked through. “Has Father suggested a man for you?”
“Yes,” Mary whispered. “He is a Duke that he has worked with in the past.”
“Oh, no.” Charlotte shook her head vigorously. “No, no, no.”
Mary parted her lips and started to ask why her sister was having such a terrible reaction to her statement, but the words fell away from her mouth when the butler returned to the room with the cups of tea. She looked desperately at Charlotte, but her sister had very clearly returned to ‘Lady Jones’ mode. Mary was now starting to see that she spent a lot of time playing a character.
“Thank you very much, Arthur. I would love some privacy now, please. Can you alert the staff members that I would like to be left alone?”
The butler nodded and turned away, thankfully leaving the girls alone. Mary felt utterly grateful for that. When it was just her and Charlotte, they could almost be the way that they once were.
“It must be nice,” she commented idly. “Having many people doing as you ask.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes at Mary. “You act as if our family has never had people working for us. You do not have it hard, trust me. I have seen the working classes and the conditions that they have to live in ... now that is terrible.”
“You have?” Mary was stunned; she had always led a very sheltered existence. A morbid curiosity claimed her. “What is it like?”
“Awful, not the sort of life anyone would like to have.” Charlotte paused for a second, and she cocked her head to one side. There was something that she wanted to confess to someone, but she did not have many friends anymore. With a husband much older than her, all of his friend’s wives were also older. Charlotte always felt left out, no matter what happened. But this was her sister; why should she not tell her? “Actually, I would like to do something to help the working classes, but my husband does not agree. He believes that the poor are a parasite on society, and the kindest thing we can do is to ignore them.”
“Oh ... right.” Mary did not know what to say to that; it was something that felt so far removed from her own life. Without any knowledge on the subject, she did not feel that she could contribute anything intelligent. “I see.”
“So, this Duke, what do you know about him?” Charlotte needed to get the conversation back to the subject at hand. “What did Walter tell you?”
“Nothing, really. I do not know a thing. I have a meeting scheduled with him next week so I can get to know something about him.”
Charlotte slid closer to Mary on the sofa so that she could speak to her quietly. While she had told the staff to leave her alone, she could not guarantee that they would not eavesdrop. The last thing she wanted was for anything that she was about to say to get back to her husband.
“Mary, I know this might be hard for you to hear, but I think you might need to sacrifice the inheritance.”
“What?” Of all the things Mary had been expecting her sister to say, this was not it. “What do you mean?”
“Mary, my husband is a horrible man. He is older than me; he belittles me, and he treats me terribly.” Charlotte’s eyes welled up with tears. “I am having the most terrible life. I know what you must think; you assume that I have it all with the nice house and the expensive clothing, but it does not equal happiness.”
Mary gulped; this overwhelming show of affection stunned her. “I am terribly sorry, Charlotte. I did not know that things were quite as bad.” She suspected that things were not all well, but she did not think her strong-willed older sister would cry.
“It is horrible, Mary, and I blame Father for this.”
“You do?” Mary wanted to reach out to embrace her sister, but her words had her frozen to the spot for a moment.
“I do. He chose John for me, someone that he did business with and deemed suitable for me. He did not seem to think that this might be a man that I would not like. He simply decided that he had enough money to keep me happy, and that was the end of it.” The mask had gone now, and Charlotte was a mess. “I begged him not to make me marry him, but he did. He does not choose men well, and I do not want him to do the same for you.”
As Charlotte reached out to grab Mary’s arms in a state of sheer desperation, her sleeves fell back slightly. Mary spotted purplish marks on her sister’s arms that appeared to be bruises in the shape of fingers. Mary’s heart flew up into her throat making it incredibly challenging to get any air into her lungs.
Charlotte spotted her sister looking, and she tugged her sleeve down rapidly. While Mary did not ask her what had happened, she already knew. The way that her sister’s cheeks tinged pink with humiliation.
Things were bad. They were worse than she expected.
“You do not wish to end up like me, Mary,” Charlotte warned her. “You do not want to be miserable with a horrible, brutish man who only wants you for an heir.”
An heir ... there it was; the stark reminder of the main purpose for a woman in the world. It was all about having a baby to carry on the family name and to inherit anything that the father earned. But before a baby came something that Mary did not want to think about. Judging by the look on her sister’s face, Charlotte did not like the idea much either. The only difference was, Charlotte was already stuck in a marriage where that was already an issue.
“So what do you think I should do?” Mary asked desperately. Now Charlotte had her even more worried. “What do I do about it all? Walter is pushing forward with the plans despite the fact that he can see I am uncomfortable with it.”
“I do really think that you should give up the house. The inheritance is not as important as a lifetime of misery.”
“Where will I go?” Mary’s hand moved up to her mouth in shock. The reality of this hit her hard; she did not know how to deal with what might come next. “What will I do?”
“You can come here.” Charlotte did not know how her husband would react to her inviting her sister into their home, even if they had plenty of room for her, but she could not deny that the idea of having someone around to support her was very tempting. “I shall care for you; we shall find you a husband that you choose yourself.”
Mary rubbed her cheek nervily; she did not know what to do for the best. Whatever decision she made, her life was about to change forever. She was comfortable with how things were at the moment and did not want anything to be different, but that choice had already been taken from her.
How much easier things were when I was a child, she thought wistfully. I wish I could go back to how things were then.
“I still have to meet with the Duke,” Mary told her sister. “But if that goes as badly as I suspect it might, I shall take you up on your offer. I do not wish to end up unhappy.” She felt bad even saying that, seeing her sister in that exact situation. “I am sorry that you are.”
Charlotte was so wrapped up in the idea of helping out her sister that her own issues took a back seat for the moment. Ever since she saw the conditions that the poor were forced to live in, and she was denied the chance to help them, she had wanted to do something for someone.
This was as good a cause as any.
“I will help you, Mary,” she insisted. “Whatever you need me to do. You will have to meet this Duke now; it would be terribly rude not to, but do not think that means you need to marry him. Be strong, Mary, do not get convinced to do something that you know is not right.”
Mary took her sister’s hands and stared intently into her eyes. “I do not know what I can offer you, Charlotte, but if there is any way that I can help you too, you know that I will do it. And thank you very much for your advice; it is very welcome. I shall be strong and will do what I think is right.”
“You must. This is all on you. It is only you that shall be affected by the choice you make for the rest of your life. Our father is not around anymore; he can only command so much from the grave. What you do is up to you.”
“Yes,” Mary whispered as Charlotte’s words washed over her. She was right; Mary knew it, but that did not make it any less overwhelming. “Yes, it is.”
The bond that had been slowly unravelling for the past six years knitted itself together once more just a little bit. The sisters smiled at one another, sharing a moment of unison. They both had their troubles now; neither of them had a perfect life. The only people they really had in the world that they could trust were one another.
“Shall we take our tea out into the garden?” Charlotte asked on impulse. “The weather is so lovely today. Maybe, considering we are both having such a challenging time, a relaxing moment in the sunshine is exactly what we both need.”
Mary nodded and followed Charlotte outside, her mind churning the entire time. She had never been put in the position of having to make a life-changing decision before. It had never been an issue because of her age. Her father made her choices, then Walter. Now, though, this was up to her. She had to choose what was right for herself, and the power of that utterly terrified her.